u shall conduct
her to your people, and tell the Wahima warriors that they should go
continually to the east until they reach the great sea. There you will
find white men who will give you many rifles, much powder, beads, and
wire, and as much cloth as you are able to carry. Do you understand?"

And the young negro threw himself on his knees, embraced Stas' limbs,
and began to repeat mournfully:

"Bwana kubwa! You will return! You will return!"

Stas was deeply touched by the black boy's devotion, so he leaned over
him, placed his hand on his head, and said:

"Go into the tree, Kali--and may God bless you!"

Remaining alone, he deliberated for a while whether to take the donkey
with him. This was the safer course, for lions in Africa as well as the
tigers in India, in case they meet a man riding a horse or donkey,
always charge at the animal and not at the man. But he propounded to
himself the question, who in such case will carry Nell's tent and on
what will she herself ride? After this observation he rejected at once
the idea of taking the donkey and set off on foot in the jungle.

The moon already rose higher in the heavens; it was therefore
considerably lighter. Nevertheless, the difficulties began as soon as
the boy plunged into the grass, which grew so high that a man on
horseback could easily be concealed in it. Even in the daytime one
could not see a step ahead in it, and what of the night, when the moon
illuminated only the heights, and below everything was steeped in a
deep shade? Under such conditions it was easy to stray and walk around
in a circle instead of moving forward. Stas, nevertheless, was cheered
by the thought that in the first place the camp, towards which he went,
was at most three or four English miles distant from the promontory,
and again that it appeared between the tops of two lofty hills;
therefore, by keeping the hills in sight, one could not stray. But the
grass, mimosa, and acacias veiled everything. Fortunately every few
score of paces there stood white-ant hillocks, sometimes between ten
and twenty feet high. Stas carefully placed the rifle at the bottom of
each hillock; afterwards climbed to the top, and descrying the hills
blackly outlined on the background of the sky, descended and proceeded
farther.

Fear seized him only at the thought of what would happen if clouds
should veil the moon and the sky, for then he would find himself as
though in a subterranean cavern. But thi